My prologue: prologue.key Mercutio
(1) What sort of person is the character at the beginning of the play? What are they like at the end? What caused the changes? Can you point to a key turning point? Mercutio’s always been sort of the clown. He does things that may not be the smartest thing to do in a situation, but he gives us a good laugh and is able to cheer people up. Though Mercutio is lighthearted and funny on the outside, we constantly get this impression that deep down, he has deep feelings and has a mind on his own. Occasionally he would use double meanings in words to express what he really feels about certain things. Mercutio dies in the middle of the book. Instead of showing one type of character at the start of the play and then showing a second later on, he’s always shown a second character beneath the surface of his clown-like self.
(2) What was the moral low point, the moral high point for this character? The moral low point and high point for Mercutio was the same thing. When Tybalt went to challenge Romeo, Romeo showed respect and was nice to Tybalt, however Tybalt mocked his respect and made fun of Romeo. Mercutio did what any good, loyal friend would’ve done – to stand up for his friend. However, the low point for him was instead of confronting Tybalt, he started teasing him back, and instead of pulling back nobly and not getting into a fight, he did, which resulted in his death.
(3) To what degree was the character responsible for this tragedy? His fight and death with Tybalt intensified the feud between the families, so he is definitely responsible. His death with Tybalt had caused Capulet to force the marriage with Paris on Juliet, making forcing Juliet to go to Friar Lawrence for the ‘poison’, which caused Romeo to think Juliet was dead, making him kill himself.
(4) What should this character have done differently? If he had stood back and went away, instead of fighting Tybalt in the first place, then the feud between the families might not have been so tense, and Friar Lawrences original plan of uniting the 2 families through Romeo and Juliets Marriage might have worked. (5) How would this character dress? What general style of clothing would suit? What colours would best represent the character and why? Mercutio should wear the color red. Red is a bright, bold color. Unlike grey or white or blue, it is not a mild color. Red can signify extremity, which I find very common in Mercutio’s behavior. He is a very bold man, easily angered, and very loud and obnoxious. He is also rather dramatic.
(6) Select one hand prop (e.g. sword, wine goblet, piece of jewellery) which you would have this character use often, or be associated with, in a production of the play. Explain why this object suits your character. I would give Mercutio a mask. A mask is a fake face that covers up the real face, and Mercutio seems to always be covering up some sad part of him deep down. If he kept a mask with him most of the time during the play it could act somewhat like a foreshadowing.
Creative Writing
Newspaper article: The fight in a public place
MONTAGUE VS. CAPULET
The Montagues and the Capulets are at it again. They have just had their third civil brawl in the fair streets of Verona, causing a disturbance and a scene this sunny afternoon. The feud between the two families has been going on for a very long time; they have been enemies ever since the start of time.
The prince then arrived, and broke up the fight. He threatened the families on pain of death, if they once more cause such a disturbance in Verona. One source says that it started out with two men from the Capulet family walking around a public place, just talking, and then running into 2 other men from the Montague family. The two Capulet men started teasing and started the fight, just as they were about to fight, another man from the Montague family came and made an attempt to break up the fight, when another Capulet (may have been Tybalt Capulet) had also come to the public place. More and more members of the two families came and then a furious riot broke out. Even, Capulet and Montague themselves were present.
The Prince said “Why such pernicious rage, I understand not. This act of rage happened not once, not twice, but thrice! May this cankered hate they have for the other be thrown on themselves one day.” Apparently, the feuds between the two families are not any normal family feud, if this thing irritates the prince to such extremes where punishments are death and such, then this may not be any normal family feud.
Creative Writing Rubric
1
2
3
4
5
Total
Grammar/Puntuation
Grammar and Punctuation are all in the wrong places.
Somewhat okay grammar.
Some grammatical errors, good overall.
Hardly any errors.
Perfect Grammar and Punctuation.
/5
Newspaper Content
Does not Explain anything. Is not clear.
Readers can somewhat understand what is being written.
Can be understood. Not very informative, but most information written.
Good Newspaper. Some minor flaws.
Excellent newspaper. Well written. Events in the article can be understood clearly.
/5
Organization
Information all over the place. Very unorganized.
Somewhat organized.
Organized but
Well organized. Paragraphs are well split up.
Very organized. Article written in the ‘upside-down pyramid’ format. The 5W’s and 1 H right at the top.
prologue.key
Mercutio
(1) What sort of person is the character at the beginning of the play? What are they like at the end? What caused the changes? Can you point to a key turning point?
Mercutio’s always been sort of the clown. He does things that may not be the smartest thing to do in a situation, but he gives us a good laugh and is able to cheer people up. Though Mercutio is lighthearted and funny on the outside, we constantly get this impression that deep down, he has deep feelings and has a mind on his own. Occasionally he would use double meanings in words to express what he really feels about certain things. Mercutio dies in the middle of the book. Instead of showing one type of character at the start of the play and then showing a second later on, he’s always shown a second character beneath the surface of his clown-like self.
(2) What was the moral low point, the moral high point for this character?
The moral low point and high point for Mercutio was the same thing. When Tybalt went to challenge Romeo, Romeo showed respect and was nice to Tybalt, however Tybalt mocked his respect and made fun of Romeo. Mercutio did what any good, loyal friend would’ve done – to stand up for his friend. However, the low point for him was instead of confronting Tybalt, he started teasing him back, and instead of pulling back nobly and not getting into a fight, he did, which resulted in his death.
(3) To what degree was the character responsible for this tragedy?
His fight and death with Tybalt intensified the feud between the families, so he is definitely responsible. His death with Tybalt had caused Capulet to force the marriage with Paris on Juliet, making forcing Juliet to go to Friar Lawrence for the ‘poison’, which caused Romeo to think Juliet was dead, making him kill himself.
(4) What should this character have done differently?
If he had stood back and went away, instead of fighting Tybalt in the first place, then the feud between the families might not have been so tense, and Friar Lawrences original plan of uniting the 2 families through Romeo and Juliets Marriage might have worked.
(5) How would this character dress? What general style of clothing would suit? What colours would best represent the character and why?
Mercutio should wear the color red. Red is a bright, bold color. Unlike grey or white or blue, it is not a mild color. Red can signify extremity, which I find very common in Mercutio’s behavior. He is a very bold man, easily angered, and very loud and obnoxious. He is also rather dramatic.
(6) Select one hand prop (e.g. sword, wine goblet, piece of jewellery) which you would have this character use often, or be associated with, in a production of the play. Explain why this object suits your character.
I would give Mercutio a mask. A mask is a fake face that covers up the real face, and Mercutio seems to always be covering up some sad part of him deep down. If he kept a mask with him most of the time during the play it could act somewhat like a foreshadowing.
Creative Writing
Newspaper article: The fight in a public place
MONTAGUE VS. CAPULET
The Montagues and the Capulets are at it again. They have just had their third civil brawl in the fair streets of Verona, causing a disturbance and a scene this sunny afternoon. The feud between the two families has been going on for a very long time; they have been enemies ever since the start of time.
The prince then arrived, and broke up the fight. He threatened the families on pain of death, if they once more cause such a disturbance in Verona. One source says that it started out with two men from the Capulet family walking around a public place, just talking, and then running into 2 other men from the Montague family. The two Capulet men started teasing and started the fight, just as they were about to fight, another man from the Montague family came and made an attempt to break up the fight, when another Capulet (may have been Tybalt Capulet) had also come to the public place. More and more members of the two families came and then a furious riot broke out. Even, Capulet and Montague themselves were present.
The Prince said “Why such pernicious rage, I understand not. This act of rage happened not once, not twice, but thrice! May this cankered hate they have for the other be thrown on themselves one day.” Apparently, the feuds between the two families are not any normal family feud, if this thing irritates the prince to such extremes where punishments are death and such, then this may not be any normal family feud.
Creative Writing Rubric